Look at what my sweet girlfriend made me for my birthday. It’s a lantern jacket!

A couple of years ago I bought a non-functioning, early-70s, Coleman 200A lantern for $12 at an antique store. It sat around for a while until I ordered all of the parts, stripped it down and restored it. Here’s the how-to I used, if you’re restoring your own by the way.

It was really satisfying to rebuild it and get it to work. I didn’t have a case for it though and it would knock around in the back of the truck with an old towel draped over it for modicum of protection.

Then my girlfriend, Natalie, after borrowing my lantern under the guise of wanting to draw it, presented me with this amazing lantern jacket. It’s fully padded and even has a zippered picket for holding matches and spare mantles. I love it!